t is official. By royal decree, we have binge-watched the latest, and unquestionably, the last season of The Crown.

The original plan, when the show was started, was to end it with Season 5 but Peter Morgan decided in July 2020 to do justice to the storyline’s richness and complexity. So as I poured myself a cuppa this weekend, and put my kids to sleep an hour earlier, I realised that it deserved a piece of my mind.

Despite the delays in filming the season owing to the Queen’s demise, the director managed to wrap it up this November much ahead of the originally intended release in November 2023.

With no major cast replacements in the central roles, we expected a tumultuous season because this was to be the moment where The Crown finally portrays Princess Diana’s tragic death. There is the era of the late 1990s to the early 2000s, with a focus on the Queen’s relations with the prime minister, Tony Blair, and the blossoming royal romance of Kate Middleton with Prince William at St Andrews.

We see the Queen playing the monarch in her late 60s, struggling through the 1990s meltdown of the royal public image. Imelda Staunton seems to have done justice to her role. She appears better suited to it than her Emmy-winning predecessors, Claire Foy and Olivia Colman. Her vulnerability and the strength required of the Queen’s character are apparent. There is warmth and unforced regality.

The whole season boils down to the same dreaded question, which the aging queen grappled with, and the one the royals are still considering: How does an archaic institution engage with the public? After the out-there life of Prince Charles, the whole British monarchy is under question. Is it still relevant?

The season seems more relevant and relatable as we got to see an Elizabeth with whom we are more familiar, facing events that many of us are aware of. Staunton is calm, composed, contained - and on guard. But we can all witness the toll it has taken on the office. She is stunning near midseason when, after confronting a woman whose friendship with Prince Philip is questionable, Elizabeth almost lets a tear escape.

The whole season boils down to the same dreaded question: How does an archaic institution engage with the public? After the out-there life of Prince Charles, the whole British monarchy is under question?

The season was always expected to face extreme scrutiny as the show enters the ’90s. Peter excellently chronicles the ebb of the royal family, or to borrow a phrase from the Queen herself - a horrible decade. The children’s marriages have failed, her own relationship has failed, her castle is on fire, there is Princess Diana’s disturbing Panorama interview and Prince Charles’s admission of an affair and a cringe-worthy phone sex scandal. Prince Philip’s infidelity and Sarah Ferguson’s toe-kissing incident get a cursory mention.

Just three months into the post-Elizabethan age, I believe that it may be quite differently perceived by the audience, as opposed to what they’d have thought about it before the demise. Now, I feel informed and educated in an entirely different ecosystem. As the story unfolds, there will be various tangents for the audience to take a lead on - how they feel about the Queen after her demise. However, the Queen doesn’t get many essential moments I’d have liked to see. This may be partly because the season is focused on Charles and Diana (played by Dominic West and Elizabeth Debicki).

I am not sure about the extent of ‘truth’ (or fiction) in The Crown. The debate has been the focus of many critiques since the show began in 2016, so much so that the PM’s confidential conversations with the royal members have been written off as ‘damaging and malicious fiction’. It is ironic that each episode has been labelled as a piece of fiction while the show continues to grow in popularity, especially as the story begins to draw closer to recent days.

Peter has written about the royals for a long time. It can be safely said that he has thoroughly examined their extraordinary lives. Yes, they may have been malicious, arrogant and the sort but they have been people who’ve done this day in and day out and century in and century out. So let’s just watch it.

The reviewer is a freelance journalist based in Karachi